


Heartbeat

by larkgrace



Category: Kane Chronicles - Rick Riordan
Genre: Character Death, Drabble, F/M, Romance, Tragedy, mostly internal monologue, well a drabble-type thing anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-30
Updated: 2013-01-30
Packaged: 2017-11-27 12:10:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 571
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/661861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/larkgrace/pseuds/larkgrace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The world turns sideways and Walt Stone's universe implodes--for two impossibly long minutes--while Sadie Kane is dead. Set in the beginning of TSS.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Heartbeat

It’s not supposed to end like this.

He’s supposed to die and she’s supposed to live a long and happy life and maybe find someone else and grow up and get married and tell her kids _you know, when I was your age I knew a boy named Walt_ and one day she’ll go on peacefully (or knowing Sadie, kicking and screaming) to the afterlife at the ripe old age of ninetysomething. She’s supposed to hold him in his last moments as he laps up the sympathy and assures her that this is okay, he’s not afraid to die even though he’s terrified and the gentle touch of her lips on his forehead (or, in his more daring fantasies, his own mouth) is supposed to be the last thing he ever feels.

Not the other way around.

_It’s not supposed to end like this._

But this is the way it is and she’s collapsed on the floor of the Dallas Museum and her eyes are open and staring a million miles away and her mouth isn’t running for once and the wrist under his fingertips is still where there should be that reassuring pounding that means heartbeat.

There’s no heartbeat.

The sounds of confusion and awakening and celebration are going on behind him and there’s no heartbeat and the world should not be spinning on its axis.

_“SADIE!”_

There’s no reply but the attention of the entire room is now focused on his little crumbling corner of the world. He can hear shouts and wails as the shockwaves ripple through the others behind him and there’s a stampede of feet and he’s dreaming, he’s dreaming, he’s going to wake up to Sadie yelling at him to get off his butt and get moving or maybe even back in his townhouse in Seattle, his mom bellowing up the stairs that he’d better get out of bed or she’s giving his pancakes to the dog even though she won’t start cooking them until he’s on his way downstairs…

He wonders if his little brother—well, half-brother, but still a brother—will wind up with extra pancakes on his plate after Walt is dead, his mom having cooked them out of habit before remembering that her not-so-baby boy won’t be eating breakfast today.

He wishes his mom were here with her own brand of boisterous motherly love. She’d know what to do even as the universe seemed to fall apart, even as Carter collapses to his knees because his sister is dead and he is officially alone in the world now, and Felix sobs uncontrollably while his penguins nuzzle him, and Alyssa seems to hollow out at the sight of her friend’s cold body.

And Sadie would know what to do, know exactly what to say so that everything wasn’t so dreadful, so that everyone felt better (if mildly exasperated) but she’s—

Breathing.

She’s breathing.

She’s breathing and the wrist under his fingers is humming with the hot lifeblood that is once again running through her veins and she coughs and mumbles something incoherent, and then she yells “Don’t leave!” and her eyes open to get a wonderful view of Khufu’s rear.

And as she tries to wrap her mind around the fact that she was dead—for two minutes, although it seemed like an eternity—he grips her hand tighter and swears that he won’t leave her.

Oh, no, he’s not going anywhere.

**Author's Note:**

> So. Hey, Kane fandom. I've written a metric buttload of Zarter drabble things over on FF.n, but this is my first Walt/Sadie piece (and according to the tags it's the first one over here ever). I really hope I did Walt justice, because he is one yummy--er, fantastic--character and no I do not have a crush on Walt where did you ever get an idea like that I will go hide in shame now.


End file.
